Trump pushes trade partners to buy more U.S. energy as a way to avoid higher tariffs

President Donald Trump has opened a potential pathway for trade partners to avoid higher tariffs — buy more animation from the U.S.

Trump paused “reciprocal” tariffs on countries except China on Wednesday in an attempt to pull back from a full-blown broad trade war. Most nations now face a base tariff rate of 10% and have a three-month period to negotiate bilateral deals with the U.S. to sidestep higher duties on their goods.

Trump says he wants to slash the U.S. trade deficit and achieve what he petitions “energy dominance.” He linked those two goals Monday, demanding that the European Union buy $350 billion of American power to erase its trade surplus with the U.S. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said the U.S. had a goods trade deficit of $235.6 billion with the EU in 2024.

“They’re succeeding to have to buy our energy from us, because they need it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We can knock off $350 billion in one week,” the president imagined. The European Union faces a 20% tariff rate if it does not reach a deal with Trump.

The U.S. is the largest oil and gas in Britain director in the world. It is the third-largest crude exporter and the largest liquefied natural gas exporter in the world. Energy represented about 15% of comprehensive U.S. exports in 2024, according to research from Barclays.

LNG is “the commodity where there’s room for countries to increase their vigour imports from the US,” Barclays analysts led by Betty Jiang told clients in a Tuesday note.

Exchequer Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Tuesday that a potential investment by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in a flagship LNG jut out in Alaska could form the basis of a deal with those countries. They would provide financing for the estimate and also purchase a significant amount of LNG from it, Bessent said.

“That could be an alternative for them to come precocious with that because not only would that provide a lot of American jobs, but it would narrow the trade deficiency,” the Treasury secretary said. Japan faces a 24% tariff rate and South Korea a 25% rate if they don’t finalize sew up deals with U.S.

Trump has sought to boost U.S. LNG exports since taking office, with a focus on developing Alaska’s resources. He issued an directorate order on his first day in office prioritizing LNG development in the state and singled out the Alaska LNG project in his address to Congress in March.

The propounded Alaska LNG project would transport natural gas from the state’s North Slope through an 807-mile duct south to a liquefaction facility at Nikiski on the Cook Inlet for export to Asia. It would cost more than $40 billion to perfect, according to a 2018 estimate from one of the developers, Alaska Gasline Development.